Various objects including iron ore, limestone, and other mineral resources are conveyed by conveyor belts. When being conveyed by the conveyor belt, an object to be conveyed is fed onto an upper cover rubber of the conveyor belt from a hopper or another conveyor belt. The fed object to be conveyed is loaded on the upper cover rubber and conveyed in a traveling direction of the conveyor belt. When the object to be conveyed is loaded on the upper cover rubber and conveyed, the upper cover rubber is subject to wear as a result of the object to be conveyed sliding on the upper cover rubber. The amount of wear generated on the upper cover rubber due to the fed object to be conveyed greatly changes based on the specification and use conditions of the conveyor belt.
Evaluation methods using a Pico abrasion test, DIN (German Institute for Standardization) abrasion test, Lambourn abrasion test, Taber abrasion test, Williams abrasion test, Akron abrasion test, or the like are known as methods of evaluating rubber wear resistance. Furthermore, evaluation methods using a wear testing device for a conveyor belt was also proposed (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-20319). With these evaluation methods, the amount of wear of a worn rubber sample is measured by pressing a pressing body against a rubber sample while relatively moving both. However, the wear resistance obtained by these conventional evaluation methods and actual wear resistance of a conveyor belt at a use site greatly deviate. Therefore, evaluation methods using a rubber sample have a problem where a wear condition of a conveyor belt at a use site can not be accurately recognized.